


Always Forever

by Alien_Humanologist



Category: Lord of the Flies - William Golding
Genre: Cheating, F/M, Greaser AU, Greasers, Highschool AU, M/M, Run Away, Slow Burn, Socs, Suicide, its inspired by the works of s.e. hinton, study dates, they’re all juniors and seniors in highschool
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-18
Updated: 2019-07-16
Packaged: 2020-03-07 04:28:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 11
Words: 14,299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18865705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alien_Humanologist/pseuds/Alien_Humanologist
Summary: Ralph focused back on his work. Notes about the upcoming project, he knew he would have to help Jack with it.  Soon the bell rang and the kids rushed out to get to their next class. It was either do the best you can or be a slacking greaser. And heaven knows Ralph could never be a greaser. But maybe...he could have some sort of relation to a greaser. Being a good person means helping those in need. And Jack definitely fit into that category.





	1. Moxie

Chapter 1

It was just another day of school. Jack skipped first period to smoke in the bathroom with his fellow greasers, Roger and Maurice. The redhead breathed out a cloud of smoke and ground up the previously used cigarette underneath his shoe. Now he could pretend to deal with the ever so annoying socs before he had to take another "rest stop".  Jack unlocked the main bathroom door and stepped out. Roger would probably ditch later and Maurice would follow either him or Roger. Evidentally as he walked through the corridors, the other boy followed as quickly as he could, looking stupid as ever. 

The bell rang and out poured the smell of hormonal teenagers.  The leader of the geeks moseyed out the door and spotted the freckled boy's eyes. There was a glint in his eyes and he speed walked to chide his typical rebel lateness. Jack kept walking and pulled up his leather jacket's collar to his eyes, trying to avoid the slightly shorter blonde boy. As he brisked past the shorter boy followed. He turned to his classroom when they blonde finally stopped him.  
"What is your problem?" Ralph exclaimed.

"What?" Jack responded

"Why do you always skip your classes? Don't you know that you'll never graduate?" Ralph scolded, Jack scoffed and sat in his seat. At times like this he wished that he just skipped the whole day and just wreaked havoc in the town. Ralph seemed to drone on and on about why he should attend all his classes and quit his "nasty" habit of smoking. But honestly what does he expect. 

Ralph's voice muddled in Jack's thought. At this rate, I won't have to get married, I'll just keep getting told off by this goodie-two-shoes instead of a wife.

"Hey, are you even listening to me?"  
     Jack snapped out of his thoughts. of course he wasn't listening, he didn't care what Ralph had to say. "Huh? oh, uh, yeah, something about my grades and smoking or whatever." 

     Ralph frowned. "Rude."

     In all honesty, Jack would get up and leave right now if he weren't in the middle of class. Not that he cared about class, anyway; he would've skipped if it weren't for the complaints of the blonde boy next to him, who had a pout on his face and was resting his head against his hand. Jack finally realized that a teacher had been talking to the class; had they been talking that whole time? He still continued to refrain from listening, and only heard the teacher say something about passing back assignments. Jack made a mental note to hide his paper from the still-angry-looking boy at his side. Sure enough, papers were being passed back to each student individually. 

     Jack sat closer to the back, so it was a while before the teacher arrived to him. A paper was handed to Ralph first. Jack glanced over at it out of curiosity; he noticed a large '100%' written in red at the top and rolled his eyes, looking away. A paper was then handed to him. He grabbed it and folded the sides so that nobody on either side of him would be able to see the grade he got. On the top of the page, in bright red marker, it read '15%-see me after class.' Jack scoffed under his breath. Like hell he'd see the teacher after class. Suddenly, Ralph gasped softly. Jack knew what that meant, and mentally cursed himself for not hiding his grade better. "A 15%?" Ralph sounded appalled, as if he'd never seen a grade so low.

     "Shut up! you don't gotta let the whole class know," Jack quickly snapped. Ralph seemed unfazed, but began to talk a bit quieter.

     "Do you just never do your work or something? this assignment was easy."

     "For you, I'm sure it was." Jack kept his eyes on his paper, examining everything that was marked off. He was lucky to get any points at all. Most of the page was blank of any sign of effort put into it, and a majority of the answers that Jack did fill out were incorrect. Only a couple answers had nothing marked off on them. 

     "What do you mean, for me? It was an easy assignment. Look around, everyone got good grades, not just myself. You didn't even fill out most of the answers, so don't..."  
Ralph's voice was lost in the air again. He continued talking, but Jack did not continue listening. He did, though, peer around at other assignments. Ralph was right, most people had gotten good grades. But who was Jack to care? He wasn't 'most people'. He let out a sigh and gazed at the clock; still over half the period left. Why couldn't Jack just leave? Why was it such a big deal? He knew he was hopeless in the long run, anyway, why should it matter if he were to leave now? It didn't matter whether he left in the middle of class, or in the middle of the day, or never attended school again, or attended every class every day without fail- he would still end up the same old hopeless Jack. 

He still didn't care much, though. What was school other than a test of your memory or your ability to tolerate others' crap?   
     "Merridew!" Ralph snapped. Jack finally payed him some attention. "stop dazing out while i'm trying to talk to you! it's disrespectful."

"If you're looking for a respectful person, I'm not really the one you should be talking to, sorry to say," Jack said casually with a hint of annoyance. 

     "Then you'll need to learn some respect, won't you? Do you just get off on being a dick to people or do you secretly wish you weren't one?" 

        Ouch.

     "Just let me be." Jack muttered shortly. Ralph tsked under his breath, expecting more than that. "Sorry for being a dick, if that's what you want me to say. I'm fine how I am, though. I know enough about respect to keep me going."

     "Fine. Okay." Ralph seemed bothered. Not like usual, he always seemed bothered with Jack, but in a different way. Right now he just seemed sick of everything. Jack could relate to that, for sure. He looked back up at the clock again. 32 minutes left. Jack groaned. The clock ticked. Jack spent a bit too long watching the hands cross over each number, wishing for them to move faster. After what felt like years of waiting (though it was probably only a couple minutes), he felt his eyes start to droop until they were entirely closed. 

     'Hopefully a certain geek finds it in his best interest to keep his mouth shut about me sleeping in class,' Jack thought to himself. Maybe he could just fly under the radar and sleep through the rest of the period without being noticed. Maybe he could just sleep the rest of the day. Maybe...

     He opened his eyes. "Get up." Ralph said from beside him. Jack looked around and saw people packing up. Did he fall asleep? Did the period end that fast? It didn't even feel like he fell asleep in the first place. Finally, he muttered a weak "What?"

     "you fell asleep, for some reason. you're lucky i didn't rat you out. didn't feel like i had to, anyway." Ralph swing his heavy-looking backpack over his arm and didn't really look at Jack directly. Jack just nodded and started packing his minimal supplies up. "I take it you're not gonna see the teacher after school?"

     "Hell no." Ralph nodded in understanding. 

     "You probably should, though." Ralph didn't say anything more on the matter. He began to turn away and walk out of the classroom. 

"Don't skip your next class." Then he was gone.

     "Don't tell me what to do," Jack muttered after Ralph had left. He exited the classroom.

He began walking through the hallway like normal, stopping off in the bathroom for a minute to have a smoke. He needed that. No one caught him, luckily; if someone did, that would be another thing Jack would have to deal with.

     He exited the bathroom after a few minutes. If he took too long, he'd be late for his next class. He could probably just skip again.

     He didn't skip.

     The rest of the day seemed to go by as slowly as the first two periods, but, then again, every day went by that slow. Jack didn't see much of Ralph the rest of the day, save that minute at lunch when he and his other geek friends walked near where Jack was sitting. They didn't look at him. Thank God.

When the final bell rang to dismiss every student from school, Jack let out a sigh of relief. He walked quickly through the halls in an attempt to beat the inevitable after-school crowd. He was typically able to beat it just fine without having to deal with anyone noticing him. He was a bit hard not to notice, though; tall height, bright red hair, covered in freckles, and probably the edgiest outfit he could possibly find were parts of the reason. He stayed looking forward as he continued to speed walk through the hall (fast enough to get him to where he was going, but not fast enough to make him lose his cool).


	2. Temerity

As he speed-walked, he saw a blonde figure come into view. Surprisingly! It was Ralph. Ok maybe Jack wasn't so surprised about that..  Ralph gave him a very sincere look, a blueish grayish tinge from his eyes made Jack feel guilty that he wouldn't attend the teacher's grievance meeting.  Ralph patted his shoulder, Jack brushed his hand off and Ralph smirked, laughing at Jack's antics. Jack continued walking to the library. 

"God, go guilt-trip someone else..." the redhead muttered.   

He went to the front gates, but felt a pang of guilt. Like he owed it to Ralph to see the stupid teacher and let them blather on about whatever. So he hesitated and went to his classroom. There, sat a very surprised teacher.  

"Mister Merridew! It's a miracle seeing you here." The teacher exclaimed. Jack grunted and slid his eyes towards the floor. An awkward silence filled the air until the teacher cleared her throat. 

"..Well, I suppose you want to know why I called you here." 

Jack quickly spat out "Something to do with my grade, I know that for a fact." 

The teacher stared hard at him then continued her ramblings. "I believe each student has a brilliant mind, it just takes a little nudge to bring that brain out to the spotlight!" She continued, "That is why I have assigned to you a tutor." 

Jack's eyes bulged out of his face. "WHAT?! Who??" 

The teacher smiled and said "I'm fairly sure you're acquainted with him, that nice boy, Ralph." 

"Well sure, but that doesn't mean I li-" 

"Up-up-up I won't hear another word of it, you are to be tutored starting next week. Ralph has already been informed"  

And just like that Jack was ushered away. On his tread home he stared at the passing cars with their blearily blinking lights. 

'Of all people why does it have to be that...Soc..' He muttered. 

Finally he reached his not so humble abode. The door creaked open eerily and then came to be silent. The whole house was silent. Jack's father took a puff off his pipe. 

"How was school." He couldn't care less about how his day was. But he complied anyways. 

"It was...fine." At most his day was irritating and tiresome. But his father wouldn't hear it. 

"Good."   
The rest of the night remained as quiet as a corpse. The crickets chirped outside, like stars, Jack flecked the ashes off his cigarette. His dad would kill him if he smoked indoors.  He took a cold shower and let the water soak through to his brain. 

'I can only imagine what a pain next week is gonna be, that with Ralph crawling on my back.'  He finished, got dressed and tried to sleep. It was a dreamless rest.  

He awoke the next morning, Friday morning. He did his best to look cool as usual. Pick out a killer outfit; his usual white tee, denim jeans, a belt and his signature leather jacket. Grease up the hair, a bit of eyeliner, enough to be more handsome, not feminine. He hid this significant part of his daily routine from his father. 

He walked to school, seeing as it was not a long walk there. He assumed his peers had ditched for Friday, and went to rent a movie or something wasteful like that. Somehow he didn't feel like having fun today. So he planned on staying the rest of the school day. The other kids gawked at him, shocked to find that he didn't skip like his friends did. Though it was his gang, they weren't controlled by an iron fist. He'd probably get a visit by Roger tonight to ask what was up. Because he woke up late he didn't have much time before the 10 minute bell rang. On his way to the bleak classroom a soc dressed proper bumped into him. 

"Hey watch it bozo!" It was a set of the twins. Well, one of 'em at least. 

He recalled Ralph addressing him as Eric.   
The smaller boy addressed him in a firm way. 

"Don't mess with Ralph, punk. Just let him tutor you and don't say another word" he motioned his eyes to him with his hands. Then left. 

A bead of cold sweat pearled from his forehead. He shook it off and sat down. There a curious Ralph stared at him. 

 

Jack couldn't summon enough courage to speak to him or even glance up. Eric's words shook him. First of all why was it any of that wretched twin's business? Ralph probably told his followers to have something interesting to talk about. Oh Jack could just imagine it 

"Ooh guess what Piggy! The bad boy Jack is stupid and has to be taught by self-righteous me!" Ralph would giggle. 

Then the news would spread to the twins and Simon because that was the most interesting thing to ever happen. Besides occasional brawls with some of Jack's party members. He really couldn't think of what to talk about if he was...Friends...with Ralph. What would there be to talk about? Grades? It's too horrid to even think about. Of course Jack wasn't dumb, he just didn't feel like putting forth the effort since nothing ever came out of good grades, besides false gratifications by the slaves of the corporation. Otherwise known as his father and the staff of this school. It was better to not try with his grades. Answering silly questions on a piece of paper was a waste of time. He'd rather be spending it on something like a movie, or just cruising around. Fights were fun. They made Jack feel alive. 

Back to the moment, Jack  sat at his desk and listened to the teachers blatherings if not for a moment. The sound of just a teacher talking about something to do with an English project was too boring, so again the redhead tuned it all out. Ralph was still staring hard at the freckled boy's face. He couldn't see why he hated him so much. 

Ralph tried to be a good student, a good friend, and an over all good person. That was his duty, after all with his father being gone and busy at work he had to be the new man of the house. He provided all he could, by having his father send money back home. He didn't need a job for now because being wealthy certainly was a perk. But he still needed to act as a role model for his siblings and cook when his mother was asleep. He didn't understand what his mother did all day that made her so tired, but when she slept he made food for himself and his siblings.  He wondered what Jack had to supply to his family. After all the young man looked like he didn't sleep a wink and worked all day. Though the cause of this was probably because of all the cigarettes he smoked in his free time. Hell, he even smoked when he wasn't supposed to. The whole school knew what he and his gang were doing in a locked bathroom. After all smoke travels far. People could smell it. 

Ralph focused back on his work. Notes about the upcoming project, he knew he would have to help Jack with it.  Soon the bell rang and the kids rushed out to get to their next class. It was either do the best you can or be a slacking greaser. And heaven knows Ralph could never be a greaser. But maybe...he could have some sort of relation to a greaser. Being a good person means helping those in need. And Jack definitely fit into that category. 

After quite a while of his mind ramblings the bell wrung to go to the next class and part with the red-headed greaser. Math. 

Math went on the longest, Jack spent his time drawing crude drabbles of violence on the blank sheets of paper. And after a while when he got bored of that he actually started to do the math problems. It wasn't like the math problems were hard, they were just puzzles to be solved after all. It's just that Jack rarely found this information to be useful. He did ok in math, an A. Not an A+ nor an A-. Just a mediocre A. This would be something for his father to be proud of but his father only wanted the best of the best grades, not a couple of numbers off of a perfect 100% grade. The bell rang and all the other classes went by like a train on a track. As expected none of his friends were in any of their designated classes. If he felt up to it he would probably yell at them for having too much fun without him. 

He walked to a diner. When he walked in the bell chimed at the door. A couple of people glanced up then went straight back to enjoying their meals, conversations and what-not. He sat down waiting to order. It was none other than Ralph Foley. The blonde was dressed in waiter's attire along with white rollerblades. He looked pale with shock that Jack was there. He stuttered and went back to orders. 

"What, uh, wh-what'll you be having?" 

Jack chuckled and made his voice low and sultry, "You."

He gave a wink and Ralph stuttered and wheezed. His face was as red as a pomegranate. 

Jack laughed even more then asked for a strawberry milkshake. "And add a cherry on top, doll."

'What' was all the poor blond's head could say at the moment. 

In his mind, he had already left and went to the kitchen to deliver the order. Physically though, he had no clue; maybe he had only just started to leave, or maybe he was still standing there awkwardly staring at the boy who had hair as red as his face was right now. It took him what felt like a good hour to snap out of this state (though the clock insisted it was only about 20 seconds). 

     "Uh, yeah, um, coming right... Right up," he finally said before nodding frantically and exiting the situation. 

He was thankful to be out of there. If he knew anything about Jack, though, he was positive that the boy was sitting in his seat with a teasing smirk on his face and absolutely no regret. As he skated further toward the kitchen, he began thinking a bit clearer, and rather than wondering what just happened, he wondered why he reacted the way he did.

He really wasn't sure if he got flustered because he didn't expect to see Jack, or because he didn't expect Jack to flirt, or some other reason; he decided it was a combination of all of that. Entering through the kitchen door, he finally shrugged it off for the time being.

     "Hey! What'll it be next?" said a familiar voice as Ralph entered. 

He looked in front of him to see one of the twins, Sam to be exact. For anyone else, they would be entirely impossible to tell apart since the two like to screw with people by making themselves look as identical as possible. Ralph knew them well, though; he always could tell who was who.

     "Just a strawberry milkshake... With a cherry on top." Ralph replied.   
He wasn't sure if Jack actually wanted the cherry or if he just added that to tease Ralph more, but it was his order either way and he was going to deliver it just as it was ordered. 

"Alrighty that's easy, I'll... Actually, hold on." Sam started before abruptly turning to go somewhere else in the kitchen. 

Ralph could go out to find someone else to wait on during this time, but milkshakes didn't take long and he'd rather have Jack completely over with before moving onto anyone else. Sam arrived again after a short time. 

"Sorry about that, hello. Eric is making the order. I would've done it but you seem a bit shaken. What's your tale, nightingale?" 

     Ralph did not want to be asked that question. How on earth was he supposed to explain it? It's not like he could outright say 'Oh, nothing much, but Jack is out there and he flirted with me while giving me his order and for some reason I think it played a large part in my sexual awakening, but it's no biggie.'

No. However, if he was gonna tell it to anyone, Sam would be that person. Sam was good to confide in, his only flaw being that he told Eric everything; Eric, unlike his brother, couldn't keep his mouth shut. Ralph decided it didn't matter right now, and if he stood there silently for another minute Sam might actually fight him.

     "Well..." he began. Sam already looked relieved that Ralph remembered how to speak. 

"basically... jackthegreaserisoutthereandireallywasn'texpectingtoseehimsoyoucan'tblamemeforbeingabitembarrassedwhentakinghisorderbuthejustmadetheproblemworseandchosetoflirtwithmeforsomereasonandireallyhavenottheslightestideawhythatflusteredmesomuchbutitdidandit'sabigproblemhelpme." Ralph took a huge breath after getting all that out, he didn't breathe once while speaking. Sam had his eyebrows up as if he was shocked but the smile on his lips made him look like he was about to bust out laughing instead. Sam chuckled. Ralph hated his patronizing chuckle.

"So, what, the weirdo redhead's got you claimed or something? That  bites." he chuckled a bit more but tried to restrain himself from bursting out into wheezes for Ralph's sake.

     "He doesn't have me claimed, I'm just not used to this kinda treatment from anyone, let alone customers, let alone Jack freaking Merridew." at this point, Eric came rushing toward them, almost spilling the pink drink in his hand.

     "Whoops, here you go!" he handed the drink to Ralph, who took it hesitantly. Eric then turned around and left again.

"Just, whatever you do, don't say a word to your brother, I'm begging you."

     Sam smiled, but then again, when wasn't he smiling? "Yeah, yeah, I'll try. Go do your waiter thing. Have fun."

     Ralph sighed quickly and with irritation. He turned around and began to skate back to Jack's  table. If there was any form of a God at all, He'd end Ralph's suffering right now and let the kid collapse on the floor unconscious or something. He did not collapse.

"Well, in all my years I never thought a soc to be at my every beck n' call." Jack smirked.

He slicked his hair back and his milkshake was swiftly placed down. Not careless as to spill any of the pink sludge, but enough to show that he was angry. Jack's face was that of a latent sad expression. The blonde shuffled away and left a waft of his cologne in the greaser's face. It suited him well he supposed. It smelled soft but it stayed for a long time. Ralph stormed to the kitchen, waiting for the next customer to come through the door but also cooling himself down from the flustering experience with Jack. 

Samneric stared at him with a knowing look. "You told him!" Ralph yelled at Sam, exasperated. 

"It's...a twin thing, you wouldn't get it."  "If one of us finds something out we have to tell each other!" 

"Yeah, you're right. I don't get your twin thing and what's so fun about telling others about personal issues"  Ralph sighed.

Eric chuckled, "I didn't realize Jack was that important of an issue ." 

"H-He's not!" At this point Ralph might as well go on break from how much he was blushing. 

He walked to the counter and glared at Jack, then his eyes softened. 'And I'm supposed to be tutoring this bastard!'

"Have you thought about what kind of champagne you'll be serving at your wedding?" Eric taunted. Even good ol' Sam laughed

Ralph rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. "Rosé" 

The group laughed at Ralph's expense.   
Meanwhile, a certain boy with hair the color of flames drank his milkshake and glanced at the boisterous laughter coming from the kitchen. His eyebrow quirked and a group of greasers strolled in, laughing and having a good time. 

"Well well well, look who we have here" the red-head smirked. 

Roger, Maurice, Bill and Robert smiled (Roger only a slight change from his usual grim facade) and sat down at Jack's table. It was then very crowded. 

"I'm starving!" Exclaimed Maurice. 

The brunette nudged Roger who in turn nudged Jack. "Oh waiter!" 

Jack's eyebrows lifted up, awaiting a certain cute blondie. By then Ralph skated to the table of troublemakers and sighed. "What'll it be" 

Jack tried to bite back his laughter with his hand, Ralph looked very much tired of his shit. The gang all asked for some variation of fries and drink, either Coke or a milkshake. Ralph wrote it down in a notepad and skated back to the kitchen. Jack stared at his behind the whole while. 'Damn'. 

"Guess our leader is betraying our league for a piece o' ass" Roger chuckled. 

Jack blushed and shook it off "Shut  up cunt" then he pushed Roger who knocked Maurice almost off the booth chair. 

"Hey is that anyway to treat your right-hand man?" Roger said exasperated. 

Jack rolled his eyes and placed the side of his chin on his hand. "I need a smoke". 

He took his other hand to grab a cigarette and place it between his chapped lips. Robert lit it, being one of the gang's most notorious smokers. Robert always had a box of cigarettes and a pack of matches on hand. The jukebox started playing a song and a few people got up to start dancing. Slow dancing. The manager of the whole joint laughed at the love birds and the sight just made Jack inhale deeper. 

"Please let this song be over soon." Jack groaned

Ralph skated to the next customer in a choreographed kind of way. It was endearing. 

"I love you baby, and if it's quite alright I need you baby!" Ralph hummed the lyrics and served fries to the table of one. He brought out another dish. Their dish. Coke, fries, and milkshakes included. He skated closer and closer and looked off somewhere else when he placed the food items on the table. The greasers chowed down, but Jack's  cigarette almost fell off his lip when he stared at the dancing boy. He got choked up and decided to ground up his cigarette and do anything else but look at his soon to be tutor. He fled the building. 

"Hey Jack! Where're ya goin'?". 

Jack didn't answer. 'Gay thoughts don't haunt me now, especially not with that SOC!' 

Jack eventually got to a brick wall, barely muffling the songs of the jukebox. This was not gonna go well with his well thought out life plan. Life plan: grow up get a job, marry a stellar lookin' babe and have functional kids. Well. Maybe the "stellar babe" part would go accordingly. He stayed outside and sat on the sidewalk, he re-lit his cigarette with his own pack of matches and smoked the night away. Instead of festering with his thoughts of happiness which would barely seem to exist with the reality of it all he just sat and relished his sadness. Nothing more romantic than mouthing a cigarette and being sad. 

"Hey, what're you doing here? We're all inside!" Maurice chirped. 

Despite being the tallest and most mature looking one, Maurice was a childish guy. Jack simply pulled in a breath and released a cloud of gray smoke at the other greaser's face. 

"Douchebag, I'm trying to make you feel better from whatever's on your mind." The brunette paused. "Let's go back inside, yeah?" Jack stared blankly at him and Maurice gave up, walking back to the diner to gather his friends and leave. The gang left the diner, stuffed and content. Roger only spared a short concerned glance to Jack but eventually kept to the rest of the gang.


	3. Licentious

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is a scene in the more lewd caliber, just a kiss scene and some grinding but not all that extreme.

Jack spent at least a while outside in front of the quaint little diner. While Ralph worked diligently there was an aching disturbance in the air. Jack felt it too. It just wasn't the same the gang fought. Especially over some meager quarrel. Jack finished a cigarette and just stayed outside, relishing in the cool nighttime air. 

Ralph, Eric and Sam finished their time in the diner one by one. Eric and Sam waited for Ralph to walk out. Ralph did eventually walk out to stare at the depressed greaser ruining the warm wholesome mood of the diner. Ralph assured them to beat feet and leave him alone. 

"You must think you're a big tickle, pulling that shit while I'm trying to make bread."   
Jack only looked at him with longing in his eyes. He didn't say anything. 

"What, now you're a drip?"   
Jack stood up and pushed him into a nearby alley. 

"Hey what's the matter with you?!" 

"R' you writin' a book?" Jack puzzled. Then kissed him. 

Ralph's eyes widened in shock but let himself be kissed by the greaser. Jack pushed the blonde against the rough brick wall and deepened the kiss. The soc closed his eyes and wrapped his nimble arms around his lust-ridden enemy. 

"Ah, we should stop-" Ralph moaned. 

"We don't have to stop." Jack rasped lowly. 

Jack bit Ralph's lower lip, then licked it in apology. They continued kissing when Jack slid his knee between Ralph's legs. 

"Mmn! But this is so wrong, we're right outside my work!!" Ralph whisper-screamed. He didn't want Jack to stop but something in the back of his brain couldn't let himself be kissing this greaser, let alone another man. 

"If this is so wrong then why does it feel so right?" Jack groaned in his ear. 

Ralph grinded on Jack's knee and whined. "I can't I- ugh- Mm!" Ralph moaned a pitch higher, almost a c-Sharp. He pushed Jack away.

"I-I have to go." He whispered. He ran all the way home to his house full of sleeping people. Jack was left in the alley way. 

"What the fuck have I done."   
————————————————————

(Shorter chapter award goes to...)


	4. Burgeon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> there is a somewhat non-descriptive sex scene that is relevant to the plot in this chapter.

Jack was left alone having an existential crisis in a dark alley way. He decided to man up and walk home..on the way there it was bleak and everything was blurry. The lights of the flashing cars were blurry. The sounds were blurry in his ears. All he could think about was the warm lips of Ralph and how comfortable he felt. And hot. Ralph was very hot.   
The dread when he got home was immense. Instead of the usual quiet silence of the house it was loud. His father wasn't home. And he still had the taste of strawberry milkshake in his mouth. The silence nearly drove him mad.   
He threw off his jeans and jacket, then jumped into bed. He couldn't sleep.   
"Why on Earth did I do that?! Am I nuts?" Jack groaned. His hands dragged on his face and he decided from then on to be a recluse to society. 

"Why did you do what?" 

"Wh-?" Jack turned his head to his window, he didn't know what he was expecting but he definitely didn't expect to see Roger staring at him from the window. 

"JESUS, FUCK," Jack screamed. "What the hell are you doing here, Rog?"   
————————————-  
Meanwhile, somewhere on the other side of town, there was a blonde boy having a similar problem to Jack. Upon returning home, Ralph immediately rushed to his room before his parents could notice him coming in. He collapsed onto his bed with no regard for his shoes or work clothes or anything else still being on. He let out a long sigh that turned into a sort of groan.   
"Good God" he muttered under his breath. The entire journey home after his interaction with a certain redhead felt like a blur. It went by very quickly in hindsight but he remembers it feeling like hours. In all his years of knowing Jack Merridew, the latter had certainly given him lots of feelings.  
Anger and annoyance, typically, with the occasional burst of joy or maybe a teeny bit of infatuation. But this feeling was different, and Ralph hadn't felt it before. This was probably every other emotion at once, all because Jack kissed him.  
Good Lord, Jack had kissed him.  
He didn't know why it happened. All the common sense in the universe told him it was because Jack had feelings for him. But of course common sense and Ralph weren't on very good terms at the moment. He remembered how the other had advanced on him; maybe it was just lust, or something? Or maybe Jack was just trying to tease him? Yes, those answers seemed more likely.  
And Ralph stopped him. Jack didn't want to stop, and Ralph didn't know if he did either, but he stopped him before things could advance more. Because, what? He didn't want to do it outside of his work? He didn't want to "do it" in general? He felt a bit uncomfortable? He didn't want to be used, if that was the case? All of those were correct. Thinking about it, Ralph was glad he pulled away when he did. At the same time though, part of him wished he just let things happen. He would probably be in a much different place right now, mentally and physically.  
Only now did Ralph realize how hot his face had become recalling the incident. There was probably no denying now; Ralph had a major thing for Jack. he decided to continue denying it, though, because denial is equal to mental procrastination and he really wanted to put off the thought until a later time. Of course, it was impossible for him to not think about it.  
Ralph desperately wanted to kiss him back, or maybe something more than that. He didn't know. That was the wrong circumstance though. He felt bad for just leaving Jack like that, the poor kid was probably beating himself up over it. Or maybe he wasn't; maybe he laughed, shrugged it off, and called up someone else to make out with. Ralph continued to tell himself these things because it was easier to believe lies about Jack than to accept the truth. But Ralph still wanted to kiss him back or something.  
He sat up in bed after laying with his eyes glued to the ceiling for who-knows-how-long. He finally took off his shoes and his work uniform, changing into his home clothing. He lay back down after and turned to the number one solution for not dealing with your problems.  
He turned off the lights and let sleep take ahold of him. In the hour or two he lay there, he really couldn't tell if he spent any time actually sleeping. He assumed he fell asleep, though, since time seemed to fly by. The thought he was trying to avoid still slipped into his mind from time to time, unfortunately, meaning that he either failed at sleeping or already had his dreams corrupted. He couldn't stop thinking about Jack's lips on his for even a few minutes, and he surely didn't know how he would cope with seeing the boy face-to-face at school anymore.  
——————————————-

 

Back to Jack and Roger.  
"Oh you know..." Roger laughed.   
"I really don't." Jack complied.   
Roger tilted his head and replied in a smart tone of voice, "I just want to make my best friend feel better."   
Jack slumped in his bed cocking his brow. "What did you have in mind?" 

"Well, a little birdie told me you got rejected by that blonde pretty boy. I'd like to help you take your mind off it." Roger said smugly.   
"H-how did you even know that?" Jack stuttered nervously.   
"A magician never reveals his secrets." Roger whispered.   
Roger crawled through the window inharmoniously.   
"Dreadful etiquette, I know." Roger purred 

"Uh.." Jack squeaked.   
"Well what exactly did you have in mind?" He said.   
"I know that blonde kid doesn't know you like I do, Merridew, and I certainly know he can't please you like I can?" Roger continued.   
A bead of sweat seeped down Jack's face. It was a cold sweat, not like that of someone blissfully jogging for physical education. 

Jack considered his choices. Would he mope about a soc who was disinterested in his advances or become invested in a greaser in his gang who wanted to ease his pain.  
He chose the latter for now. He would only see Ralph as a tutor from here on.   
"Fuck it." Jack complied, he sat up from his bed, grabbed Roger by his name and pulled him down to kiss him.   
"Mmf" Roger moaned into the brief kiss.   
"This is only to take my mind off of Ralph, got it?" Jack muttered.  
"Got it." Roger blushed  
Jack pulled him onto his lap and they kissed like there was no tomorrow. French kissing? Check. Roger felt so high, in his life he never thought he would get Jack Merridew, even though it was part of his plan to get him wrapped around his finger. 

Roger let himself get pushed down onto Jack's bed by Jack. He was a candle in the process of melting. Roger pulled him closer on top of him, Jack smelled like cigarettes.   
He kissed him again and Jack put himself between Roger's legs. His legs happily trapped Jack in his sights. Roger greedily kissed Jack.  
Roger could feel Jack's growing member on his behind. 

Jack's eyes were closed, Roger felt self conscious. Whatever. He continued to get felt up by Jack. "Do you got any lube?" Roger breathed out, breathlessly. 

Jack's eyes opened and darted to his drawer. Roger released Jack from his legs and waited patiently. Jack went over to the drawer by his bed and scrambled until he found it hidden under a book, conveniently located in a small bag. Roger looked at him and waited. 

"Make yourself useful for a while.." Jack said quietly. 

Roger shrugged and tugged off his pants.   
————————————————  
Back to Ralph again...  
He dreamed of the fate of him and a specific fiery greaser. 

He guessed he'd have to see in the morning.


	5. Lout

It was the day after Sunday. Monday. Ralph woke up at 5:00 am every morning for school. On the weekend it was 7:00 am.   
He walked to school, knowing he'd see his friends sooner or later, maybe they'd console his epidemic.  Once he arrived it was a bare land. No one really got up as early as he did, especially not after a Sunday. He got his breakfast from the cafeteria, orange juice and some meager pickings. His routine for breakfast wasn't very thick with variety. 

Later in the day when more people started showing up he saw his faithful friends, Simon and Piggy. Sam and Eric usually arrived later on, on count of the fact that they love to ruse mischief for greasers  late at night.    
"Hey guys." Ralph said tiredly. 

"What's shakin, bacon?" Piggy replied. 

"Well aren't you chipper in the morning?" Ralph laughed. 

The three of them talked and laughed until finally Sam n Eric showed up. 

"It's about damn time!" Piggy said

"Hey guys!" The two greeted. 

Ralph  yawned, the point of him and Jack would come up sooner or later with these two gossipers around. It wasn't like it was hard to avoid the concept anyhow with them blathering all the time. Simon poked up 

"Huh?" 

Ralph finally tuned into the conversation to blush and become the subject of a very embarrassing subject. 

"It's true! Jack was totally mackin' on Ralph!"

Ralph looked down in embarrassment. 

Simon held Ralph's hands in his own, "Ralph listen to me, don't trust those greasers." 

Ralph shrugged and tried to subside the awkward conversation about his love life. 

"I'd rather keep work business in work. Strictly. And not discuss it for trivial matters.." Ralph spat quietly 

Simon looked at him with something in his eyes. Ralph couldn't tell if it was happiness or sadness. The school bell rang and each to their own walked to their designated classroom. Back to Jack. Ralph dreaded each step to his English class. When he got there he felt as if all eyes were on him. He sat at his desk and saw a very tired Jack nearly passing out at his desk. Typical. He tried to look away from the other boy but his mind gave a hot flash to last night. His cheeks heated up and he pressed his cold hands to his face. Today was bound to be a long horrible day. 

The teacher greeted the class as usual and docked the assignments for today. They were to read a chapter of some book silently and write about it. Jack's piercing blue eyes were drooping. Until eventually he fell asleep. Ralph wanted to roll his eyes and laugh at him for being so typical but he just muffled a chuckle and focused on his book. He read through the chapter but it wasn't like he absorbed any of that information. He tried reading it again to regain his intelligence as a student, alas no avail. All he could think about was Simon's indiscernible eyes and how beautiful Jack was. And you know what? Ralph didn't care whether Jack was a no good greaser or not, he just had a burning need for him. 

He slapped his face for thinking that. Now that really got the whole class staring at him. All their gazes were like needles. Especially Jack's pale blue glare. He rubbed his eyes then put his book up as if he was still reading it. In reality, he was just using that as a ruse, a distraction really, to think about his current affair. He put his book away and brought out his journal. Since the whole class was reading the same book, Ralph would probably get a short summary from Piggy. Then he would rewrite that in his own words. 

He brought his #2 pencil down to the lined paper and sketched something resembling eyes. He cursed himself for not being able to draw as well as Simon, or even some of the greasers for that matter. While he was sketching it seemed like only a couple seconds before the bell rang to head to his next class. He scrambled to put his things away, and ended up just crumpling up the paper with a peculiar set of eyes and throwing it away in a nearby waste-bin. 

He smacked Jack on the shoulder to wake up and rushed out the door to his next class.  When Jack arose from his chair his face was flushed. And drool on his face from whatever minimal sleep he just had.  Ralph couldn't bring himself to look at Jack for very long before feeling guilty. 

He walked into his next class, science. That class was a blur. Something about taking notes, the usual Cornell notes. He couldn't recall at all what the lesson was about but he would eventually turn back to it when he got home. After all, studying daily is a necessity to be a straight A student. Breaking that roll would devastate him.  After he finished notes he laid his head down on the thick desk. He could only close his eyes for a few minutes because his stress level wouldn't allow him to legitimately sleep. 

The rest of the period was him staring off into space thinking about how stupid Jack is. So stupid and...Beautiful. God why did he have to fall for this cheeky bastard?! The bell rung and he slung his backpack over his back and walked to third, then fourth...

Lunch time? Another plane of reality.  
When he walked to his usual table. The pristine one that never had stains, or food, or dross left on it. He brought out lunch. A pb and j. He would count on his friends to protect his lunch. Piggy sat at the table with his lunch. His aunt always packed a nice good lunch for him. Spoiled brat. Then followed Simon who didn't really ever eat anything during lunch. He said he ate when he got home. No one questioned that. And the twins who also got cafeteria food. Their favorite thing to do was create the most disgusting concoction with the remnants of their feast. 

Ralph walked back to a full table with a carton of milk. 

"Hey guys" Ralph sighed. He was still thinking about Jack. 

"I think we should use a code name for him if we're gonna talk...about him..." Ralph's eyes drifted to the floor and then back to the table of people staring back at him. 

Piggy dipped on his juicebox. "Uh...like what?" 

"Uhhhhhh..." he thought and just blurted out, "Cherry????" 

Sam n Eric laughed   
Sam bumped Eric, "Oh, he's serious?" He whispered.  

Ralph blushed "shut up. If you wanna talk about him then use that name." 

The boys shrugged. It wasn't like they had anything better to do. 

Ralph sat down and tried to take a bite of his sandwich while his friends blathered I'm about cars and books. Suddenly a greaser saunters to the table. 

"H-" he breathed out.   
Ralph had the most confused expression on his face.


	6. Rathe

"H-hey" Jack breathed out. He tried to strike up conversation with an awkward smile but it barely worked. It only left a confused looking Ralph in his sights. Jack tried to talk to him but his brain was practically tearing him apart between Ralph and Roger. On one hand he really liked Ralph even if he was a prudish soc. But on the other hand, He and Roger already had sex. Even if it was just pity?? Or maybe it was just a one night stand. Somehow, something in Roger's eyes made it feel as if Roger wanted to make it more than a one time thing. He's have to be more direct to him next time they talked, which would be a little while after he talked to Ralph and his gang of geeks. 

"What is it." Ralph grumbled 

"Ain't gonna let me sit down? C'mon, we ain't so different." That couldn't have been farther from the truth. Ralph was rich, Jack was poor. Ralph was blonde, Jack was a red-head. Ralph was studious. And Jack? Well, he tried. 

Ralph rolled his eyes and let the greaser sit down. This caused quite a few stares in the lunchroom, including those of his peers. Ralph sighed. Jack didn't have lunch with him, he usually got food at the diner after school when he had the money on him. 

Honestly, looking at the soc as he ate quietly and stared off into space, Jack realized that he really couldn't find it in himself to hate him. He couldn't even dislike him; Ralph wasn't really a dislikable person. Yeah, he was sometimes rudely honest or irritable or had no patience, but he'd never done anything bad and Jack knew that Ralph never had anything but the best interests in mind for everybody else. He found it charming. Plus, he seemed to shrink into the seat when he sat down and Jack thought it was super cute.   
     "Well?" Ralph muttered after a while, almost too quietly to hear.  
     "...Well? Well what?" Jack replied in a confused manner.

"You wanted to sit here. I assumed you'd have something to say." Ralph didn't make eye contact. He didn't even turn his head to face Jack, actually. He kept staring down at his food or staring into the nothingness in front of him.  
     "Oh, not really. Can't a guy just sit wherever he pleases, hm?" Jack smirked. It was a reflex to him. If you're happy, smirk. If you're angry, smirk. If you want to be as condescending as humanly possible, smirk again. Jack was surprised his face hadn't gotten stuck like that yet.

"I suppose you could." Ralph went quiet again after. Jack would literally never admit it, but the silence between them made his heart ache. Sometimes he really wished that he were a soc, or that Ralph was a greaser, just so the two would have more in common and could be good friends. Of course, "friends" wasn't all Jack wanted to be, but it would be better to be friends than to be whatever the two were now. What could he even consider them? They weren't close enough to be considered friends, so maybe acquaintances? Whatever; it didn't matter what they were now, it only mattered to Jack what they would be in the future.  
     "Aren't you gonna eat?" Ralph had already finished his lunch after a while. Jack had barely been picking at his food. He forgot it was there, actually.  
     "Oh, yeah," he said, taking a bite of the mildly stale sub sandwich sitting in front of him. "Sorry, I eat slow i guess."

"Yeah," Ralph said shortly. God, this was so awkward. If only Jack didn't feel so intensely for the blond next to him, maybe he could talk to him easier. He could talk so easily to literally every other person, just not the boy he wished to get close with the most. Screw it.  
     "So," he finally said after another minute of tension. "What hours you work at the diner? Just in case I get hungry, or in case I miss you," he said with a sly chuckle. Ralph blew air out of his nose and kept the same facial expression.  
     "Monday through Friday. 3-7 pm. It's enough to get by, I'd say." Ralph still refused to make eye contact and was rather expressionless, but the tone in his voice was in no way bitter or negative.  
"Neat. Maybe I could swing by and pay you a visit again sometime soon, doll?"  
the use of the nickname made Ralph flinch. Jack chuckled at that.   
     "So you're really not..." Ralph finally glanced over at Jack for the first time that day.  
     "Not what?"  
     Ralph hesitated. "Nothing. Ice it."   
     Jack figured that if Ralph had finished his sentence, it would've sounded something like 'so you're really not gonna mention our small make out session the other day?' which is probably why Ralph chose not to finish talking. Obviously, neither boy had mentioned it (they hadn't even really spoken since then). 

The conversation would be nearly impossible in front of a table of judgemental socs. So the bell cut it short and saved their asses by screaming at the pupils to get a move on. It was fifth and sixth period then time for hell.


	7. Reticent

Eventually the end of school rolled down on the boys. It was only a matter of time before Jack met Ralph at the library for his tutoring. 

Ralph walked patiently to the library and did his own work while he waited for Jack to pop up. English was easy peasy, so he moved onto math and science. Math took some time to do the problems, since his teacher required the students to write out how they got the answer anyway. Science was just retaking notes he didn't do and piggy would probably help him out with that after his shift at the diner. He didn't take history so no problems on that. 

Jack questioned what he should do; face the guy he was crushin' on and MADE OUT WITH or just not show up. He'd get reprimanded by the teacher of course, but hey, his social life was at stake! He decided to go. He left his sixth period class and slowly made his way to the library; where they were supposed to meet. He was walking when all of a sudden Roger was dashing at him. 

"Hey." Roger panted. "What's up?"   
"Uhh, tutoring." Jack replied.   
"Oh." Roger said like he was disappointed or somethin'   
Jack tried to keep going but Roger held him back somewhat, the smaller greaser didn't say anything but he looked at him like Jack just killed his dog. Jack moved  restricting hands away from his shoulder.   
"Anyways, I gotta get goin'" Jack said cooly.   
He finally made it to the library and saw Ralph napping on his hand. Geez, was he that late?   
"Hey, wake up." Jack shook Ralph's shoulder. Now it was his turn to be the studious one.   
"Ah, hey." Ralph snorted. He rubbed his eyes and got pencils out to start working.  
He stopped when he saw Jack not sitting down to work.  
"Aren't you gonna sit down?" Ralph quizzed  
"Oh, uh yeah." Jack cleared his throat and sat down in the chair.    
Jack didn't really pay attention to what he had to do for English so he just got his backpack stuffed full of crumpled papers and slumped it next to his chair. 

"So are you going to bring out your work for English?" Ralph paused.   
"Ah- oh yeah I forgot about that.." Jack's eyes glanced to the side as he blushed in embarrassment. Ralph sighed in frustration and got his already done work out. "Here you can just copy this down, but WORD IT DIFFERENTLY!!! the teacher will bust both our asses if you copy it exactly." , "if you need more explanation just ask." Ralph puffed. 

Then he brought out a nice book to read and read quietly while Jack just looked at him and his work in shock.   
"o-ok" Jack replied. 

It was some sort of rough draft about a book they all had to read. Jack copied it roughly on a piece of scratch paper and wrote his name on it. 

"Uh ok." The task was easier than expected. He scribbled his name and just sat there.   
Small talk. Small talk fixes everything. He scratched his bright red locks and talked to the shorter soc. 

"Is this book interesting?" Jack spoke up  
"About as interesting as the past books we had to read I guess." Ralph replied   
"Is it as interesting as......nevermind haha" Jack coughed. 

Ralph really wanted to ask "as interesting as what?" but he decided not to, partially because he already knew the answer and partially because he wasn't interested in carrying on the conversation much. Jack was trying to make small talk, and he respected that, but that's not what they were there for. They were there to work. right, work... Work, and hopefully relieve some built up tension. Or just work.   
     "so..." Jack continued after another awkward moment of silence, "What's your favorite of the books we've read in class?"  
Ralph actually thought about this question.  As much as he wanted nothing to do with the small talk, he decided to humor the taller boy sitting next to him as it was clear he was struggling to keep up this one-sided conversation.  
     "I'm not sure, actually."  
     "Don't you read a lot, golden boy? I always notice you reading books in your free time."  
"Yes, but..." Ralph thought for a minute after that. Blushing only slightly at the humiliating nickname. Not about favorite book, but about what Jack had just said. What did he mean he 'always notices' Ralph reading? Sure, he reads a lot if he gets the chance, but so do lots of other people. He never knew Jack as the type of person to pay much attention to what others are doing. Maybe he only ever notices Ralph because they know each other pretty well? Or maybe it's because...  
     "but," he continued, "the ones at school don't interest me much. They're  dullsville and repetitive, I prefer other types of genres anyway."   
     "Like what?" Jack chimed. he seemed genuinely interested in the conversation. how sweet.  
"like, I don't know, mystery? They're fun to read and figure out. And ones that talk about the past and future, as well... I like ones that are more outside of the box and make you think, ya know?"  
     Jack smiled a bit. "yeah, I dig."  
     "What about you, what kinda books do you like?" Ralph inquired. he didn't think Jack liked to read in the first place, but why not ask?  
     "well, I don't read much, actually." noted. "I get that reading is a nice way to see other people's ideas and points of view or whatever, but I like to get that by just talking to people directly instead of reading what they write down. 'course, most people don't feel too keen on talking to me about their beliefs and feelings." he laughed a bit, which made Ralph laugh a bit, too.  
     "wait, wait, what time is it? am I wasting your time too much?" Jack almost sounded concerned. how endearing.  
"No, don't worry about it, my parents let me stay at school for however long it takes to finish up my work. Sorry for making this drag on, though. What do you need help on today?"  
     "no worries. and nothing much, I just feel like this assignment is easier assigned than done."  
     "hm," Ralph hummed, leaning closer to see the paper. he had only leaned in a couple inches further, but it made Jack's heart die a little bit. "alright. Do you need help on what to do or how to do it?"  
     "I think I get what to do. We just finish writing this summary draft, right."  
     "Basically. Finish writing the summary draft, then answer these questions on the back," he explained as he flipped the page over to reveal 3 analysis questions. Jack hadn't even seen those. He groaned, which made Ralph smile a bit. "Hey, they're easy, I swear. You didn't read the first chapter yet though, did you?"  
"Nope," Jack said, popping the 'p'.   
     "Geez, okay. Read it real quick. It's short. Once you're done, write the summary for it and answer the 3 questions about it. They're really easy, I think, but ask me any questions you have."  
     "Alright." Jack answered shortly. He opened his book up and began to try reading, but like hell he could focus. He was more focused on the boy next to him, and how soft his hair looked, and how he twitched his nose and squinted his right eye from time to time, and how he tilted his head as he wrote, and how he was staring directly at Jack, god!   
     "need something?" Ralph asked softly.  
     "no, no, sorry, I didn't mean to stare I was, I was just in a daze is all," Jack frantically responded. He hoped he didn't sound too panicked, but he probably did. Why did he sound so panicked? He didn't usually get like that.  
"Alright. as you were, then." Ralph returned to his own work.   
     Jack practically snapped his neck from how fast he turned back to his book. He tried reading a bit more. This time, he was able to focus for a while, getting around halfway through the chapter before finally becoming distracted again. He glanced over at Ralph, who was... sleeping. sleeping? really? just like he had been earlier, it looked like he fell asleep on accident. Jack wondered if he should wake him up, clearly he had been real tired, but it didn't feel right to just leave him like that. He tapped the blond's shoulder gently.  
"w- huh?" he groggily replied.   
     "sorry. You fell asleep again. I'll just, uh... continue my work now." Jack turned back to his own things. Ralph looked a bit confused still, but nodded and continued what he was doing.  
     The rest went by mildly quickly. Jack finished reading, finished the summary, finished the questions without having to ask many of his own. This made Ralph proud, though he didn't say anything. After, the latter told the former that he'd have to get going. Jack seemed a bit upset about this, but agreed and packed his own things. god, how neither wanted to leave, and god, how neither wanted to say a thing about it.


	8. Gadabout

Ralph walked to the diner in a haste manner, taking refuge in the bitter coffee served there. That would be his solace for the rest of the night, until he could go home. The twins were already in the kitchen working their shift since they didn't have to tutor a mischievous, flirtatious, contradicting, flustering greaser. 

"Hey Ralph!" They twins greeted. Ralph downed another cup of joe and waved. He didn't know if his heart could handle another encounter with Jack at his job. Never-the-less he put his work uniform on and briskly walked to the counter. Another night of pesky people. He  stood in a comatose way and waited for customers to roll in. There were already quite a few, he guessed the other guy just clocked out. Another person strolled through the door, a couple. Both of them were socs. The girl blushed and giggled by the taller male's qualms. He watched and stuttered a quick greeting when they finally went in to sit. He skated to the table and asked for their preference. They wanted to share large fries and a strawberry milkshake... with a cherry on top. 

He took that order and went back to the kitchen. He hoped he wasn't visibly crying in front of the whole diner.   
"One large fry and a large strawberry milkshake with a cherry on top." He sniffled. He gave the order to one of the cooks trying his best to avoid the twins. He glanced to his side and noticed a fresh jar of maraschino cherries. Did he do the right thing? It wasn't long before the inevitable intruders of his personal life came to his rescue. Or at least one of them. Again..

"What's wrong now, chickadee?"   
"I don't know...It's just..private stuff I guess." Sam gloomed by his side like a mushroom in the dark until Ralph finally spoke up again.   
"It's...Jack." Ralph paused, "I don't really feel comfortable talking more into it." Ralph sighed and thought about who he could tell. After all, his mother always said it was never a good idea to keep all that sadness and confusion stuck in your brain. What if he told Piggy? He's a good person and would try to help...but he has no experience with love and would nerd out over him kissing someone before marriage. Or maybe Simon...He was generally quiet and could keep a secret. Lord only knows what goes on through that lad's mind. But would he understand? Ralph didn't think so, but it was his only chance to vent properly without feeling worried about the consequences. Like two twins yapping their jaw off to the whole group and cause it to be more of a commotion than Ralph really wants it to be, or Simon being stressed out by drama. 

After a considering this for what was probably too long, he noticed that Sam wasn't standing by him anymore. He'd probably gotten tired of waiting for the boy to crack. Shortly after, Ralph was approached by a chef with the order he'd previously requested. He thanked him before skating back out into the diner and in front of the couple's table. They seemed a bit too busy to notice him; they had been wrapped up in what looked like a session of eating each other alive at the moment. Ralph awkwardly placed the food down and quickly left the situation, shuddering.  
     He began looking around. There wasn't much business that day, apparently. On the bright side, there was no sign of a particular fire-headed boy clad in leather, but there wasn't much of anyone else either. Slow days were the worst; Ralph actually typically enjoyed skating around and greeting customers. If he had time, he'd hold conversations with them, and it was always great to see what they had to say.  
Slow days were nothing but hours of watching the clock hands move slower than normal with nothing else to distract him. There was always the twins, and they were lovely, but they got to be overwhelming sometimes. Ralph took once last glance around the less-than-bustling diner before resigning himself back into the kitchen.   
     Slowly, slowly, surely, the hours passed. Still no sign of the boy with constellations of freckles on the galaxy that was his face. That was good, Ralph never liked star-gazing, anyway. Until it was time for him to leave, he stuck himself in a loop: go into the kitchen; look for samneric; talk to them for a moment; get sick of it, go back into the diner; ask "how's your meal?" and receive an unenthusiastic "good"; go back into the kitchen. The clock struck closing time as he was about to enter the "get sick of talking and go back into the diner" phase for the eighth time that night, and Ralph didn't hesitate to pack up and clock out.

While untying the laces of his skates, he reflected on how the past few days have felt too temperate, either way too long to way too short. he couldn't tell which was worse.  
     So, what now? As he walked out of of the building, he asked himself this over and over until he had an answer. Should he go talk to Simon and risk stressing him out? should he go talk to Piggy and probably end up getting annoyed with his tirades? Should he just hold it in and suffer like he'd been doing for too long? He looked up. The sky was clear; just indigo for miles and miles.  
He looked back down and got into his car, which looked brand new as it always had. Pulling out of the lot and starting toward the street, he still didn't know exactly where he was going. He just... drove. 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15... He kept going. Around the 18 minute mark he stopped in front of a house - Simon's. Yeah, he might bother the kid, but he couldn't never bother him any more than he'd been bothering himself for a quite a while. He stepped out of the car, shut the door, walked to house, and knocked.


	9. Caprice

The brisk opening of the door frightened Ralph if only a little bit. Simon peered up at his comrade in need of severe attention; and that of a romantic connotation. 

"Hi.." Ralph breathed out. He didn't know how to begin professing his dilemma. What to do. How to feel. Or even where to go next. He walked to Simon's subconsciously so it must have meant something rather important to his subconscious mind. Possibly not, anything is to be suspected.   
"Hullo" Simon meekly replied   
"What're you doing out so late?" Many things flooded through Simon's brain.   
Why was his crush at his door? Near midnight? This was crazy. 

"I'm just....I have a lot on my mind.." Ralph sighed.   
Simon looked behind him as if he had to keep look out.   
"Come on in."   
Ralph walked in and nervously rubbed the back of his neck.   
"It's about..Cherry.." Ralph knew the nickname was ridiculous but there was no easier way to go about it. He just didn't feel like spouting to the world that he may or may not have a tiny possible interest in someone of the same sex. It wasn't possible. He only knew of so many people who experienced this odd phenomenon. Boys were just. Something else.. He could always laugh it off when he might be teased and called a queer in the locker room for looking at a.. curious body changing into not particularly sexy clothing. 

By the time Ralph was brought back to the real world he noticed his frizzy haired friend was gone. So he looked around nervously until he saw an also nervous looking Simon making tea. Simon was always a considerate host to his peers. Including his crush. Yes, it would break his heart to hear that blonde beauty talking about some other guy in a rose-tinted dye. But he couldn't just leave his friend outside in the cold. But why, of all people. Was it a greaser who's done nothing but wreak havoc on his school and now his friends. His mind would fester on that thought later tonight. When the hot water in the teapot whistled a scream he poured it into two cups, he didn't really have a need for tea right now but he figured it would make Ralph less uncomfortable drinking tea by himself. Sleepy time tea would relax his friend and hopefully help him sleep. 

He prepared the tea in a meticulous manner and carefully brought the hot cups of warm liquid to the coffee table. Ralph was already sitting down on the sofa, so Simon figured he'd sit on the other couch.   
"So? Uh.. about...Cherry?" Simon coughed   
"Oh uh, yeah. I'm..." Ralph exhaled roughly out his nose.   
"I might. Uh, sort of.. kind of.." Ralph kept stuttering 

"Like him more than I should." Ralph nearly shrieked. It was very rare for Ralph to lose his cool. So Simon was more than shocked. Nevertheless he kept quiet and let Ralph continue his tirade.   
"Also we may have sort of kissed before and I freaked out so I don't know what to do!" Simon's eyes lost its glimmer. His glassy eyes peered up and became clear.   
"I think you should confront him and tell him how you feel, if it's bothering you this much." Simon took a sip of the sweet calming tea. Ralph's eyes widened and his path became clearer than glass. He thanked Simon quickly and downed the tea, it's hotness scalding his throat.   
"Thanks again, I owe you my life." He blurted before dashing out the door.

Simon caught a whiff of his fresh cologne in his speedy path. He went to get his cup and wash it. 

—————————————————

Ralph ran all the way home. His breath huffing and puffing into a white cloud of condensation in the cold nighttime air. He entered through the backyard and forced himself to finish work and sleep. But even after work was done he couldn't budge his eyelids to close. All he could hear was his pulse beating in his ears. How would he get Jack alone. Again Ralph was left to his thoughts, alone in his darkened bedroom. His room was neatly put together; Courtesy of his family maid. 

 

He wasn't exactly sure when (or if) he fell asleep that night. He just remembered that it was dark, and his mind felt like it was full of fog that obscured clear thoughts, and it was still dark and he looked at the clock reading "12:52" and he looked over again 5 minutes later and it read "4:28" and it was still dark. Ralph decided that since sleep was merely a distant idea, rather than a possibility, he would just get an extra-extra-early start on his day. He didn't have to be awake for almost 3 hours, but maybe 3 hours would be enough for him to form some idea on what he would say to Jack that day.

 

Frankly, Simon's idea of telling Jack how he felt wasn't anything he hadn't thought of before. He had considered doing it before but never entirely thought of it as a rational idea until Simon suggested it. That was sort of the push he needed to carry through with it. But what would he even say? He could go the concise route, saying, "Hey Jack I like you and I hate it;" or the long route, giving a detailed description of every single emotion Jack had ever made Ralph feel with concrete details and historical citations to specific instances; or the truthful route, in which he would frantically declare, "Greetings, Jack Merridew!You're immensely gorgeous and while it would go against everything I stand for, I think I'd really like for you to propose to me here and now. At the same time, though, I want you to stay a world away from me at all time so I can continue putting off that fuzzy feeling I get when you breathe somewhere near my direction." No, no, goodness gracious, no.

After what felt like entirely too long, Ralph decided to confess in a not-too-concise, not-too-long, not-too-truthful way, along the lines of "Hey, man, my lips have been tingling ever since they touched yours and that's pretty awful because nothing really came out of that and I don't know where we stand right now but I like you a lot! I also need space though so keep that in mind." After replaying that in his head a few times, Ralph scrapped that idea too. He eventually thought, "whatever," and decided that he would cross the confession bridge when he got to it.

It wasn't long before he was asleep, but like a millisecond his pesky alarm clock screamed in his ear. He looked severely worn down. Time for school.


	10. Rhapsodic

Again, Ralph repeated the same routine as usual. Get ready for school, go to school, wait for friends, etc...

His friends were less chatty than they usually were. Piggy seemed more peppy however; quite the rarity of the husky teen. The twins seemed worried about something but Ralph didn't see any specifics on what that couldn't possibly be. Until it struck him. 'I have to tutor Jack Merridew again.' Ralph let out a grumble from his throat. That would force him to say something to Jack whether he liked it or not. He was dying just thinking about it, but he couldn't keep getting bullied by Jack in his own wily way. Jack must have had some hint about his little crush, right? So what could he do to finally address it.

Suddenly the anxiety from yesterday's escapade came back spiraling into his brain. His two choices rugged at his skinny arms.

"Is there something wrong, Ralph?" Simon asked. That boy always was there for him, Ralph was grateful.

"Just thinking."

As if Simon could read his mind he replied " oh. I'm sure cherry already likes you, so don't worry about it too much."

Ralph didn't feel all that relieved by his words. He tried to fake a smile though. 

Piggy gasped as he was informed about the whole situation.   
"Ralph! Why didn't you tell me you had a love life?? I don't care if it's with some greaser, you should've told me!" 

Ah. Ralph guesses he didn't care about the fact that his maybe lover was a man. Cool. He supposed. 

"I...didn't plan to get any of you involved actually." Ralph sighed. 

Piggy puffed and spoke "Hey man, if I got kissed by a girl you would be the first to know!" 

Ralph laughed and got his nerves soothed, if only a little. It was only a matter of time before he saw the redhead's gang arrive to the lunchroom. It was a rarity that they came to school on time, but when they did there was bound to be trouble of some sort. 

He noticed a shorter noirette glare at him. His pallor was extremely threatening along with his status. How does Jack manage to get along with someone that menacing? It was a mystery. 

Ralph focused on his laced up shoes to avoid his cold stare. Simon patted his back. 

"Let's head to class, yeah?" Ralph felt a tug at his heartstrings when he didn't see Jack immediately upon eyeing the gang. 

They walked to the class where geeks of all sizes hung out to study. He sat at his seat and his friends sat in chairs next to or near him. 

"Don't you feel relieved to take a breather from the greasers?" Simon asked, "I know I certainly do." 

The blonde shrugged and slumped into his chair. hopefully his half-assed work would be good enough for his teacher. He was just too stressed to focus too intently on it. The boys continued their tedious conversation until a sweaty redhead burst in the room. 

"Ah- Hey! Ralph!" He heaved. 

"What's up?" He smiles in a charming manner, hopefully he wouldn't mind having an audience again.

"...nothing much." Ralph responded curtly. Rose bloomed on his cheeks and his mind when completely blank. He forgot about confessing, he couldn't say anything, his throat completely closed up. 

Meanwhile his friends stared at his crush like weirdos.

"Ah well.. just wanted to tell you I'm.. Looking forward to our next study session."  Jack blushed and looked down to his choppy shoes. 

"Yeah, me too." Ralph replied. There was an awkward silence between the two and Jack began to move his feet again. 

"I'll see ya in class I guess.." Jack said.

He shuffled away and out the door. That was followed by silent ooohs and ahhs from piggy and the twins. Simon sat there in silence. 

"I thought you were going to tell him, Ralph." 

Ralph's eyes slid away from Simon's small frame and tried to begin, "I..uh...it's...it's complicated." 

The bell rang and his friends who weren't in his class left. The day was followed by silence aside from the teacher lecturing about a tedious topic.  Ralph focused on that, letting his work become the only subject on his mind. He didn't think about Jack. He didn't think about his friends. Just his work and the general ease it brought upon his wrung out mind. 

He finished his work ahead of his class and went to ask his teacher for any future assignments, which were easily regarded to him. So he finished that quickly as well. Anything to distract him from the awkwardness. His interaction with Jack. His future confession plan. Simon trying to help out but failing miserably. 

He panicked as he noticed he was done with this assignment as well. He looked at the teacher who looked happy with his work and didn't take notice to his distress. 

"If you're done with that too you can just go on and help other students." The teacher quipped. 

Ralph wiped the sweat from his brow and moved to a student who seemed to be having trouble. 

"So....what don't you get?" Ralph managed to breathe out. 

The student glared at him and then quickly smiled widely, in an almost creepy fashion. 

"Wait a minute! So you're who Jack likes???" The brunette whisper-screamed. 

Ralph choked on his saliva.   
"W-What?" 

"Yeah! You're the blondie he has the hots over." He chuckled 

"Ah uh..." he grunted. He couldn't let this guy distract him 

"Shouldn't you focus on your work instead of frivolous matters such as that?" Ralph tried to straighten himself out, as to not make his clear stress visible. 

"Psshh, that's boring!" 

Eventually, much to Ralph's disliking, they began to talk and work. The deal was that Ralph would answer curious questions about him for every section of work he got done. He learned that this peculiar boy was named Maurice. An acquaintance to Jack. Perfect. 

On one hand, he was freaking out. On the other hand he was ecstatic to gain such an advantage to his confession route.


	11. Rapprochement

Ralph heard snickers from both his friends and gave them a glare that screamed: "Shut your mouths or so help me". 

They stopped laughing but kept sly smiles on their lips. Ralph left his head fall against his desk, making a banging noise that was much louder than he'd intended.  
     "I don't think that was all he wanted to say," Simon spoke up. 

     "Another great deduction from Captain Obvious," Piggy joked, earning a nudge from Simon. 

"He's right though. Why would he just walk in to tell you he was excited to study later?"

Ralph sprung up from the desk. "I don't know! He doesn't like studying! He doesn't even like being around me!"

     Simon allowed a quiet "Are you sure about that?" to escape his lips. 

Ralph then proceeded to slam his head back against the desk.

     "Dude, stop, you're gonna get a concussion," Piggy declared. Ralph just sighed in response.

     Frankly, he had no clue where he sat in the ginger boy's mind. It's like his mind is a mansion with hundreds of rooms and Ralph somehow got lost in one, but he's unsure of whether it's a useless room or one paramount to the functioning of the nearby kitchen where all Jack's emotions are made. That made absolutely no sense to anyone but Ralph because he was experiencing it.

He hoped Jack had a generally positive idea of him; that weird declaration he'd made a few minutes ago hinted that he did. He hoped even more that Jack had an overly positive, mildly romantic idea of him; at the same time, though, that was the last thing he wanted. Ralph had tried to list the pros and cons of Jack liking him back several times, but there were too many on each side and they became uncountable. 

     He needed to stop thinking about Jack so much in the first place. It was like the heavily freckled boy lived in his head, and every time Ralph began thinking about any other topic, the former just started yelling for attention: 'Ralph... Ralph....'  
     "Ralph."

"What?" the boy snapped out of his delusions.

     "The teacher said to get your pencil out, hurry up." Simon looked kind of annoyed that he hadn't been paying attention but also understanding of the situation. Ralph hadn't even noticed that the teacher walked into the room. 

     He picked up a pencil from his small bag. It was red, like the hair of someone he knew, and just like that, the boy living in his head began screaming for attention once again.

He would forget the plan that went through the former night. There was no way in hell he could face Merridew. English was boring, it could have been fun, Ralph supposed, If he wasn't so caught up in the vein of another boy. He felt there must be some way to get rid of this feeling so back to studying useless information it was. The paper was blank and soon filled with a neat print of the teacher's futile words. 

Sooner than later, the bell rung. Boys and girls his age rushed out the door to catch up with friends while they walked to the next class. Ralph sighed and packed up, pacing steadily towards the door. Simon began to speak, it was soft so Ralph didn't think it was directed toward him. He kept walking.  

The next class had Piggy in it, so he could share notes and thoughts with him, he supposed. French. 

'Fléau de mon existence' thought Ralph. 

That too went flat. He couldn't even bring up talking to his friend who was caught up on learning where the accent marks went. The day went stale until lunch time. By then the day was halfway over. So off to the cafeteria Ralph went. The blonde was impartial to eating, for now, only thinking about eating once he went to work or home. He should have expected this but again his nuisance of a crush showed up at his friend groups' table. 

"Can I talk to you, Blondie?" He abruptly asked. 

"It's...Important" the redhead added. 

Ralph froze but rose from his stupor, "Sure." 

His friends gawked and tried their best to hold in their laughter, save for a few friends with good manners, who didn't laugh at all. Ralph huffed and payed them no mind. Surely he could get through what happened the last time they were really alone. Though he wasn't sure if he'd freeze up, run away, or end up making out with him again. He kind of wished for the latter but most likely he would either freeze or dash. 

The two walked outside the lunchroom area to the bleachers, no one would pay attention to them talking there

"So?" The blonde began

"Uh, yeah sorry for dragging you here but I wanted to know about um.. Us." 

Ralph was stunned. His cheeks began to flush and he started stuttering, god how he hated his stutter when he got nervous. At least he wasn't as bad as Piggy. 

"I'd kinda like to know about that too.." 

There was an awkward silence between the two of them, Merridew dug his shoe into the ground before clearing his throat and beginning again. 

"I think I like you." Jack said. 

"I think I like you too." 

Ralph paused a significant time until he continued. 

"So, uh, I guess we're gonna date now."

—————————————  
Ralph felt like he was on cloud nine. How the hell did something he was avoiding turn into the focal point of a conversation?  
He couldn't wait to tell his friends at the diner. 

Heaven knows he's wonderful now

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The last sentence is inspired by The Smiths’ Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now


End file.
